Masked and Anonymous
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: July 24, 2003 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
32
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 28 Critic Reviews
Positive:
4
Mixed:
11
Negative:
13
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
SalonStephanie Zacharek
See it in one glorious shot, grab as much from it as you can and run like hell. I say that not because I hated Masked & Anonymous, but because I loved it. Read full review
75
Seattle Post-IntelligencerBill White
A strange and convoluted film that is as rewarding as a Dylan song, and just as perplexing. Read full review
75
PremiereScott Warren
If you dissect Masked line by line, it would be, like a Dylan song, indecipherable. But if you take the allegory as a whole, by simply asking the questions, it somehow makes a statement. Is it muddled? Yes. Imperfect? Sure. Impenetrable? Well, that's open to interpretation. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerDan DeLuca
Isn't a good movie, at least by any conventional definition of the word good. But it's not a bad movie, either. It's a Bob Dylan movie. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter Travers
It's only when the film attempts to express its ideas in spoken English that logic dissolves into a muddle that would test the most rabid Dylanologist. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Requires tremendous restraint not to conclude that this entertainingly apocalyptic mess is about nothing, since it may well be about everything. But I doubt it. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleEdward Guthmann
A messy, ambitious comedy. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
"Masked" is erratic and volatile, too, from scene to scene, moment to moment. The script is chaotic, but the top-flight actors play their hearts out. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
For all its pretensions and avant-garde narrative dislocations, the star-studded cast...keeps this buzzing. Read full review
50
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
A fascinating, vexing, indulgent, visionary, pretentious, mesmerizing pop culture curio. Read full review
50
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
This one's painful. Read full review
40
Dallas ObserverRobert Wilonsky
The film strains for some kind of meaning, but asks you to do the work it can't and won't perform on its own. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
Bob Dylan might have been wrong when he sang that "there’s no success like failure, and failure’s no success at all." His new movie, although a complete narrative mess, is a thoroughly Dylanesque escapade. Read full review
40
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
Though Dylan shuffles through the dramatic sequences like a dessicated mummy, the music sequences are strikingly vibrant -- he's never looked worse or sounded better. Read full review
40
Village VoiceMichael Atkinson
Only Giovanni Ribisi, with a back-of-the-bus speech about the betrayals of insurgent and counter-insurgent politics, finds a genuine moment. All the same, for some unfathomable reason, Dylan's autumnal self-salute is not particularly difficult to watch. Read full review
38
Miami HeraldConnie Ogle
An apocalyptic Bob Dylan song made cinematic, with all the vision and poetry dissipating in the transfer. It's as if the filmmakers listened to "Desolation Row" just one time too many. Read full review
30
The New York TimesDana Stevens
An unholy, incoherent mess. Read full review
30
L.A. WeeklyChuck Wilson
After a zippy first hour, the wackos wear out their welcome and the director, perversely, fails to show the big concert. Read full review
30
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
The look of the film is great, the soundtrack glorious, but more often than not the dialogue is atrocious, featuring a lot of long-winded gobbledygook. Read full review
30
Washington PostMichael O'Sullivan
Simply painful to watch as the doomed vehicle it's trapped in comes whistling toward a fiery crash landing. Read full review
25
Boston GlobeTy Burr
The exact cinematic equivalent of a classic Bob Dylan song. It's also proof that what is towering genius in one medium can go insanely wrong in another. Read full review
25
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
There are people who find treasures in celebrities' garbage cans so it's a reasonable gamble they might want to buy tickets to watch their throwaway home-movie projects as well. Read full review
20
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
Dylan's performance doesn't offer any clues. He's an icon and he delivers an icon's performance, literally: He could easily have been replaced by piece of wood with his face painted on it. That distance also means he remains more or less untouched by the embarrassment going on around him, even though it's largely his own creation. Read full review
20
Film ThreatPeter Lynch
A nearly complete and total disaster. Read full review
20
VarietyTodd McCarthy
Evinces no interest in such niceties as credible dialogue, character motivation or forward momentum. Read full review
12
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
A vanity production beyond all reason. I am not sure, however, than the vanity is Dylan's. I don't have any idea what to think about him. Read full review
10
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
Here’s a good rule of thumb: Any movie featuring a quote in its ad from the poet laureate of Great Britain—“Deeply engaging!” -- is in trouble. Read full review
0
New York PostLou Lumenick
An incomprehensible Bob Dylan vanity project that is not only nearly impossible to sit through, but embarrasses a long list of stars who lined up to work for scale opposite the legendary musician. Read full review
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